I just picked up this game today. It has a strange issue where where you start the game and plunge up a ball it thinks you havent and puts out another ball to be plunged. I figured I would go into the test menu to see what I could come up with. I press the test button then on the screen it says to press the left flipper to toggle through the options. Except nothing happens no matter what I do.

I was wondering if anyone who has this game or another GB3 could shed some light on either issue really. Thank you in advance. Game seems to work well otherwise.

Check the ball through switch it needs to be adjusted or replaced.Did you try pressing
the right flipper button to see if it goes through the menu selection?

Yes, neither flipper does anything. I'll look at the switch to see if I can adjust it.

I see a micro switch that seems to register balls in the trough, is this what you are referring to? By adjustig it would it be a slight bend so that it makes better contact with the balls in the trough?

I also updated the post title as the test issue I am having seems to be a general System 3 issue as well.

pinballn00b said:

I see a micro switch that seems to register balls in the trough, is this what you are referring to? By adjustig it would it be a slight bend so that it makes better contact with the balls in the trough?

Yes,Thats the one

So bending them both a bit more into the trough is acceptable?

Just slightly bend the leg that is sticking out of the ball through
bend it down a little bit with a needlenose plyers

Is that to kind of guarantee it hits the button on the micro switch?

Switches can always be adjusted up or down its an easy thing to do
When the ball rolls over the switch it makes contact with the button
if the switch does not make contact with the button the machine will
assume a ball is not there so then it pops out another ball.

To enter System 3 Diagnostics. When your entering Test Mode, press the test button again when the thing about the flippers comes up. The next screen will come up and "Self-Test" will be highlighted. Press Test Button again and after the "Self-test" runs you will be able to enter diagnostics and get to switch test.

"Pinmike" So I fiddled with the switches. that doesnt seem to do anything. I did get more of an idea of what the issue is, I may have to take off the trough to see more. There is a horizontal plunger (excuse me if thats not the right terminology) with a ball sitting on a microswitch right in front of it at the start of a game or a round. The plunger hits the ball which then hits the other balls located just to the right and that knocks a ball into the lane tot be plunged by the player.

It seems like sometimes when this happens the ball that gets plunged by the horizontal plunger doesnt clear that part that holds the ball from falling back onto the micro switch in front of the plunger. That causes the plunger to wack the ball again (probably because it thinks it made its way around and drained down the middle too quick) firing another ball into the lane to be plunged by the player, except there is already a ball in play yada yada.

Hope thats not too long winded. I am not sure what the mechanism is that stopped the ball from falling back onto the microswitch. My only thought is maybe its sticking or maybe the plunger has a coil sleeve thats shot?

"hawkeye11"

I have pressed the test button a couple times. Nothing seems to happen. It just sits on the screen telling me what the flippers do. Tournament mode shows a similar screen then it moves onto the next menu automatically. I'm thinking maybe the board is bad but I dont know enough about Gottleibs (or many pinball machines) to make that decision just yet.

Small update figured out the duplicate ball issue, when you have 5 balls installed and it oly takes 4.. yea that could be an issue. stupid me. I didnt notice this till I took off the cover though, you dont get a good look at the trough without it off.

Still working on the test screen issue.

I got nothing on this issue. the test screen is still stuck. I had emailed pbresource they didnt think it was the a26board that hold thetest screen button. So I am just lost as to what could be causing this. Tournament switch works fine and thats on the same board.

I know how hard it is to find answers sometimes. Esp being a n00b. Just wanted to update this thread incase someone else one day runs into this problem. I believe I found the solution.

I disconected the A15 Flipper Switch board. When I turned on the machine and ran test it loaded up fine for the first time since I have had it. I guess there is a short in the board. My next thing is to get a new board with is like 14 bucks from pbresource.com. If that doesn't fix it. I will post in this thread again. Thanks for the help you guys gave me.

I have an update and am stuck again. Hopefully someone can recommend some ideas.

I got the new flipper switch board. That did not solve the problem at all. Still stuck. The test menu still works when you disconect the connector to the board. I reseated the ground connectors to the ground board.

I am totally out of ideas.

A modification is to tie all the ground wires together on the ground board. That way if one ground pin or connector goes open the others compensate for it. First off, reseat all the ribbon cables in the backbox. What does it say when you first turn it on? When you go into test, hit the start button and can you make selections then with the flippers? Pressing the test switch button should advance you through the self tests. Are you getting any kind of messages?

What happens with it all hooked up is you go into test and it shows you what the flippers do on the screen. left for select right for choosing (something like that) then it sits on that screen forever. Even if you push test a bunch of times.

I found by disconnecting the flipper switch board that it goes right to the menu and I can push test to navigate through the self tests. I reseated the ground wires. I reseated some of the backbox wires. I thought about cuting the grounds and tying them together just worried ill screw it up, also one set of wires is much short then the other not sure how I would get them all together.

The game works fine otherwise just test is flaky. When you turn it on no errors. The flipper switch board works fine in game when choosing options on the dmd as well.

I'm just lost. I am not sure if its a ground issue. I am also not sure how to trace which group of cables goes from the ground plate to the switch board since everything is so neatly tied together its hard to track.

I found the grounds for the flippers themselves. which plug into the ground board. Its about 8 wires total so instead of doing all those them I can probably just clump those 8 together and screw them to the metal?

http://www.flippers.com/gottlieb_ground_cures.html

Check that out. Thats a good way. What I did to mine was strip a bit of wire on all the wires, wrapped some wire around them (tying them all together) and soldered it. That way you keep the connector. That was how Clays sight suggested and it worked fine. Not sure what to tell you about the stuck test screen. I'll dig around a little and see if I can find anything......

I had someone say they may be related. I dont have a soldering gun right now. Can I still do it with out it? I am looking to try this today I am hoping its the solution to the problem.

Yes, click the link, scroll down to the system 3 and they have some nice pics of doing it without a soldering iron. He suggest soldering to the connector but thats not definite. Just makes for a little more insurance of a better connection.

I going to attempt this I am just not sure if its related to my problem or just a good thing to do anyway.

I went to one hardware store trying to find those crimps. No luck at one, they were too small. Hoping to find them this week at home depot perhaps.

Just finished the gottlieb mod for the ground wires and that still has fixed the issue. I have only run into one person on the internet with the same issue and he ended up selling his machine as is.

is there anyway someone can explain how I can trouble shoot this?

"The components used on the sensor board are minimal. If a sensor board is suspected as the core of an issue, removing the board and testing the components on the board is recommended. Equally, bad grounds could be the source of why the sensor board is not properly working. Components on the sensor board need a logic ground to function properly. Make certain the ground on the board has continuity between it and the transformer panel's metal case located in the bottom of the cabinet. Pins 5 and 8 of the U1 (MCT6) optocoupler on the sensor board are the ground reference. "

http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_3#The_System_3_Board_Set

Are the pins, on the soldered piece on the board or the cable that snaps in? If its the soldered piece how do you check continuity? also not sure how to count the pins, like which order.

Things that could be wrong:

broken wire/unplugged connector in backbox
check the flipper coils to see if all the wires are connected

I had this issue on a sys 3 Big Hurt where a mouse had chewed through a bunch of wires. And then again on Stargate when one of the wires fell of the flipper coils.

One of the soldiered wires? or the leaf switch?
I found one wire that was missing a casing but I taped it up. it wasnt chewed through.

I have noticed that when I go into tournament mode you are supposed to press the left flipper to step and right to select. It is automatically stepping through each option withoutout pressing any flipper. I found that by unplugging the switch flipper board I could get into the test screen and run through the tests by pressing the test button. I found that once I get to the test screen (whether this is good practice or not) if I plug in the switch flipper board it immediately starts to step through the options.

Seems like maybe the left flipper button is partially energized. Any idea how I could track that down?

Just some more info.